Bombers reverse score against Vikings

The Barnum Bombers boys basketball team reversed the score with a 53-35 win against the Cook County Vikings to remain undefeated in Barnum on Tuesday, December 18. Barnum raced to a 26-12 first half lead before gliding home to victory. Although Cook County placed two players in double figures, the Bombers had by far the better balance in scoring. Barnum was led by Brandon Newman’s 14 points. Cook County got 16 points and six boards pout of senior Kale Boomer and classmate Colin Everson had 13 points for the Vikings.

The Bombers shot just 1-for-7 from three-point land in the half and 1-for-4 outside the arc in the second half for 2-for-11 (18 percent) in the game on the long ball.

Cook County struggled as well in the half at an identical 1-for-4 from downtown but warmed up a bit in the second half to go 4-for-14 from outside the arc as they tried to use three-pointers against Barnum’s tough defense to come back from a the 14-point halftime deficit. The Vikings came out with an overall three-point shooting rate of 5-for-25 for an only slightly better (20 percent) game rate on the long ball.

Barnum had a strong inside presence with a 10-for-19 (53 percent) first half and an 8-for-17 (47 percent) second half to wind up at exactly 50 percent on the inside for the game with 18-for-36 in and near the paint.

Cook County could muster just 3-for-8 in the paint in the first half and only 3-for-7 inside in the second half for a meager 6-for-15 (40 percent) for the game.

Barnum went to the stripe seven times in the first half and made three and went 8-for-15 from the line in the second half to go just 11-for-22 (50 percent) on the freebies in the game. Cook County went 3-for-6 on its tosses in the first half and 5-for-5 on the charities in the second half to finish at a decent 8-for-11 (73 percent) from the stripe for the game.

Barnum out-rebounded the Vikings by halves at 14-9 and 13-10 to win the battle of the boards at a fairly big 27-19 for the game. Barnum took the first half steals at 4-1, but Cook County took the second thefts at 3-2 as the teams nearly split the take-aways at 5-4, with Barnum having the one more theft edge in the game.

The teams were much the same in terms of taking care of the basketball. While each team had seven first-half turnovers, the Bombers had five second half miscues to Cook County’s three lost possessions as the Vikings won that one stat at 10-12 for the game.

The Bombers clearly took the assists at 5-1 and 5-3 by halves to win that department at 10-4 on the readily apparent scoring plays.